In the immediate aftermath of his party’s poor performance in the Bihar Assembly elections, Congressman Rajya Sabha, Kapil Sibal, admitted in an interview on Monday that people “do not see Congress as an alternative.” He also blamed the leadership for not recognizing the issues that plague the party, despite knowing them.
“If they don’t recognize those answers, then the graph will continue to decline,” he warned.
In an interview with The Indian ExpressSibal noted that in addition to the below-average performance of the Congress in Bihar, where it won only 19 of the 70 seats it contested, the party also faced adverse results in the by-time elections.
“We lost all the by-elections in Gujarat,” he said. “Even in the Lok Sabha elections we had not won a single seat there. In some Uttar Pradesh constituencies, congressional candidates in by-elections obtained less than 2% of the votes cast. Three of our candidates in Gujarat lost their deposits. So the writing is on the wall. “
He expressed concern that Congress has been unable to emerge as an alternative in large states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh for decades and its performance is poor even in states like Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, where contests do not have multiple corners. .
‘No dialogue, no effort for dialogue’
In August this year, 23 congressional leaders, including Sibal, had written to the party chairwoman, Sonia Gandhi, suggesting that there had been a “steady decline of the party”, as witnessed in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections. , but that no “honest introspection” was made to analyze the reasons for these massive defeats.
When asked if any action was taken on the letter, Sibal said: “There has been no dialogue and it appears that there is no dialogue effort on the part of the management.”
He claimed that the fact that the Congressional Work Committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, is nominated is the reason behind the leadership’s reluctance to address the issues at hand.
“Democratic processes must be adopted and accepted even in the constitution of the CWC,” he said. “He doesn’t expect the nominated members to start questioning and raising their concerns …”
Sibal further said that the party was aware of his problems but was unwilling to address them.
“If Congress hasn’t been introspection for six years, what hope do we have for introspection now? The Congress party itself knows all the answers. But they are not willing to acknowledge those answers. “
– Kapil Sibal
He regretted the absence of conversation within the party, suggesting that all organizations need it. “In the absence of a serious – and I’m not saying introspection because that time is up – in the absence of a serious recognition of what the problem is, we won’t be able to find any solution,” Sibal said.
‘Nomination culture must disappear’
When asked if elections for the party chairman and for the Congressional Working Committee will help address the issues, Sibal said “the culture of nominations must disappear.”
“Elections by nominations will not lead to the desired results,” he said. “Some of us put our pen to paper and said what should be done in Congress on the road ahead. Instead of listening to us, they turned their backs on us ”.
However, he added that the elections alone will not solve the problems, unless Congress is “able to recognize its shortcomings.”
Sibal elaborated that “[state and general] the elections have turned into a presidential race ”in the recent past and that the nature of the campaign has changed because of that.
“… The main media are controlled by the ruling party. Therefore, we need to discover a new mechanism to reach people. What is that mechanism? You have to think about that. “
– Kapil Sibal
He also added that to produce results “on the ground”, Congress must have a conversation with “experienced minds, experienced hands, with people who understand the political realities of India, people who know what and how to articulate in the media.” .
On the Bihar elections
Speaking categorically about the recent Bihar elections and the bye elections in various states, Sibal said there has been no message from the leaders.
“We have yet to hear from the Congress party their views on our recent performance in Bihar and in the by-elections,” he said. “Maybe they think that everything is fine and that it should continue to function as usual.”
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